By AILEEN QUINONES
Moapa Valley Progress
The Rising Star Sports Ranch Resort hosted a Nike Boys Basketball Camp last week. The camp was specifically designed for sports teams and clubs across the region to come and improve their game during the summer off-season.
“The camp is a lot of fun,” said Nike Camp Director Russell Beck. “It’s just awesome that basketball can bring a lot of different kids from a lot of different places together like this.”
The camp provided a chance for individual players; whether from across southern Nevada, or as far away as South Carolina; to develop athletically and improve their skills.
“We have some kids from France here, we have some kids from the east coast, and obviously a lot of Nevada kids,” Beck said.
The four day sports camp placed special emphasis on refining fundamental basketball skills and enhancing skill sets at the post, wing or guard positions.
“It’s helped me in a bunch of different ways,” said camp participant Darius Henry Camper.
Camper also said that he had been improving in basketball and that even simple things such as stretches would help him in other sports as well.
Those that attended the camp not only received a Nike Boys Basketball t-shirt, but they also had a chance to stay in the ranch-style dorms that the Rising Star Sports Ranch Resort offers.
The camp was just one of the many sports camps offered by the world’s largest sports camp company, according to US Sports Camp.
With over 900 camps in 16 different sports serving more than 90,000 campers in 2018, US Sports Camp mission still remains the same: to connect passionate coaches with young athletes to facilitate athletic and personal development in a positive and safe environment.
Beck is currently a coach with the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Amateur Athletic Union powerhouse, Arizona Supreme. Beck has also coached 15 seasons with the National Collegiate Athletic Association division 1, according to the Rising Star Website.
Nike camp coach Carena McCary, who also helped at the camp, has six years of basketball coaching experience and was a four year varsity letterman at Sierra Vista High School.